In the age where education is merely a business, the student-teacher relation is more of a financial transaction where students give money in return teacher gives education. The student sees the teacher as if he is teaching because he is paying, and the teacher looks at students as a source of income. In this situation, where and how does the educating process can happen? That is the reason why we see today that students don’t have respect for teachers, and the same is true with teachers, too. So, only the divinity and morality in the knowledge transfer process are lost; this is the reason why our present education system is unable to produce students with great character.
This is a story is from Chhandogya Upanishad that inspired Adi ShankaracharyaJi too.
One fine day Sathyakaama hearing about Rishi Gautama went to his gurukulam and by offering humble pranamas (salutations) to rishi, the boy said, “ Guruvaryaha, with your divine your blessings and by serving you I am very keen to gain the holy knowledge. Please accept me as your student.”
Then with a smiling face, Gautama asked: “my dear boy, may I know your gotra(lineage)?”.
Satyakama replied “Guruji, I don’t know my gotra I will ask my mother and come back”
Satyakama went to Jabala and asked her “Oh! mother, can you please let me know to which gotra I belong to”
With a sorrowful face, the mother, Jabala, said: “My dear son, my life was spent serving many guests at home and was very busy, so I don’t gotra of your father. Now he is no more. So, I do not know it. All I know is I am Jabala and you are my son Satyakama. So, call yourself Satyakama -Jabala.”
With so much excitement Satyakama ran back to Gautama Rishi and conveyed pranams to rishi and conveyed the information his mother said and said, “I am Satyakama and I belong to Jabala”.
On hearing it, the Rishi smiled and said: “The true eligibility to gain knowledge is being truthful. I appreciate you my boy being truthful. I will initiate you into brahmacharya and accept you as my student.” As a ritual, Gautama did Upanayana samaskara(ritual) to the Satyakama (giving the sacred thread and the Gayatri Mantra) and accepted him as his student.
Knowledge is power, and it brings great responsibility. If given to the wrong person, it can harm society. So, in the Gurukul system, teachers won’t just transfer knowledge as the student requests. Instead, they used to test the student’s eligibility. Only upon proving eligibility is the student blessed with knowledge. So, Gautama, too, wanted to check Satyakama’s eligibility.
As a part of it, one fine day Gautama asked the boy “take four hundred thin and weak cows for grazing into forest and come back when they become strong and grow in number”. Humbly obeying his guru’s orders, Sathyakama said: “Guruvaryaha, I will come back to ashram only when these become healthy and multiply into a thousand.” By taking Gautama’s blessings, Satyakama left the ashram.
Satyakama constructed a hermitage for himself and cows and looked after the cows for years by strictly following the duties adhered to him by his father. As he promised, the cows became healthy, strong, and even multiplied in number. All these years, the boy, with great respect and divinity, has been doing all the duties suggested by the guru without fail, and every minute, his heart is deeply passionate for eternal knowledge.
One fine day, a bull said to the boy, “Hey Satyakama! How many days you keep grazing these cows, is it all? As you promised cows to have grown into thousands, take all of them back to the guru, and I will teach you about ‘one-fourth’ knowledge called Prakasavan, and the god of Fire Agni will teach you more.” And the bull taught him as promised.
On his journey back to Gautama ashram, as it was night, he halted at one place and lit fire for warmth. There, the God of fire Agni appeared and said, “My dear boy, I am here to teach you another quarter about eternal knowledge called Anantavan.”
One evening, when Satyakama was sitting beside a lake, surprisingly, a swan came and said, “Hey Satyakama! I am here to teach you the third quarter of knowledge called Jyotishman.”
One day, while he was sitting under a peepal tree, a diver bird came and said, “Oh Satyakama! I am here to teach you the last quarter knowledge called Ayatanavan.”
(Here, these four teachers symbolize the Vayu, Agni, Āditya, and Prāṇa, the elements that form life on this earth.)
After Satyakama returned to the ashram, Gautama delightfully, with a lot of affection, looked at the boy and said, “My dear son, I see that your face is shiny with Brahma Jnana- the eternal knowledge. May I know how you gained this eternal knowledge?”
He humbly fell on his guru’s feet and offered pranams to his guru, Gautama and explained to him what had all happened and who had taught him. After explaining everything, the boy with an intense desire to gain knowledge, obediently and devotedly Satyakama prayed to his guru “Guruji, I am keen to learn the eternal knowledge, Brahmajanana. Please bless me with the knowledge, without this I am incomplete and imperfect.”
Hearing upon intense, whole-hearted request of Satyakama and deeply moved by his student’s quest for knowledge, Gautama, with a gentle smile and happy heart, blessed the boy and replied,” My dear boy! You are already initiated with the true knowledge of Brahma Jnana (eternal knowledge), not much is there for me to teach you and all I need to do is just add a little”
Finally, Satyakama became a great sage…
This was the beauty of the relationship between a Teacher and a Student, which is missing nowadays! A teacher would be aware of his responsibility in molding a kid into a worthy human being. The student was aware of the necessity to serve his teacher to earn knowledge. It is not the teacher who has to serve his student, it’s the student who must serve his teacher to receive knowledge from him! Even a prince had to do the same in the gurukul. No special treatment or knowledge was imparted to a student, whoever may it be and how much ever money he or she might be willing to pay!
Only a worthy, humble student would receive his teacher’s blessings in the form of knowledge. Students were carefully selected by a teacher and taught what they would really deserve
By serving the Guru faithfully one gets real knowledge:
अज्ञान तिमिरान्धस्य ज्ञानाञ्जन शलाकया । चक्षुरुन्मीलितं येन तस्मै श्री गुरवे नमः ॥
I salute to the Guru (teacher) who opened my eyes filled with the darkness of ignorance, with knowledge!
